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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Lies, More Lies, and Damned Lies

Glenn Greenwald over at Salon writes in "Lying to Congress has become a Republican principle, literally" that:

Revelations about White House involvement in the firing of the U.S. Attorneys means that the testimony of top Justice Department officials to Congress was fundamentally false. And everyone knows that now.

As they say, the sh*t is about to hit the fan. Yesterday afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent five letters requesting that White House Counsel Harriet Miers [can you believe Dubya wanted this twit to be a Supreme Court Justice?], her deputy counsel William Kelley, and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove [oink, oink!] to cooperate with the committee’s investigation into the mass firings of US attorneys. I doubt they'll cooperate, so the subpoenas will be next.

In the meantime, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are both calling on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign in the wake of the oh-so-clearly political firings of eight U.S. Attorneys. Gonzales has to turn over damning documents, and even the Wall Street Journal suggests he's quaking in his shoes.

This particular set of Republicans sure does have an interesting conception of what "Justice" is. Politics should have no place in it. Then again, Gonzales is the dolt who claims the Constitution doesn't guarantee Habeas Corpus. The next two years are gonna be long ones, folks.

UPDATE: John Sununu, R-NH, is the first Republican to call for Gonzales' resignation.

5 comments:

I am a bit troubled by the fact that Hillary Clinton is offended. Her husband fired all of the US attorneys when he took office, which stopped a number of investigations including the one into Dan Roskinkowski (who ultimately went to jail and was later pardoned by Clinton). And contrary to what she said today, Clinton was the first to do this wholesale firing.

These people serve at the pleasure of the president and while anyone who is fired is usually offended and angry, it is a fact of life.

I wish it had been done a bit more professionally and that the administration would stop apologizing for something that is well within its pervue and power.

I don't mean to start a fight - just thought you might be interested in another's perspective.

Hi Al, no worries about starting a fight. I think respectful dialogue is important, and my views shift accordingly. Yup, you're right: Clinton did a purge when his Administration first entered office, and didn't Reagan do so as well? (Memory rusty on that one.) I think the "suspect" thing in the minds of many is that it's never been done in a President's second term--I saw something somewhere yesterday about that; will try to find it and post the link here.

I have a true love/hate relationship with Hillary Clinton. I admire some things about her. Otoh, I feel a little weird about a "Clinton Dynasty" in much the same way I felt odd about a "Bush Dynasty." She's a consummate politician and sometimes I doubt her sincerity. Barack Obama and John Edwards are looking better to me. I still wish Al Gore would run.

Words to Live By

"You must give up everything, in order to gain everything. What must you give up? Everything that is not truly you; all that you have chosen without choosing and value without evaluating. All your self-doubt that keeps you from trusting and loving yourself or other human beings. What will you gain? Only your own true self; a self who is at peace, who is able to truly love and be loved, and who understands who and what she is meant for. But you can be yourself only if you are no one else. You must give up "their" approval, whoever they are, and look to yourself for evaluation of success and failure, in terms of your own level of aspiration that is consistent with your values. Nothing is simpler and nothing is more difficult." -- Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross